White Mystery's sibling mayhem

"C'mon, Francis!" Alex White shouts over the din of her guitar as her younger brother goes ballistic on his drum kit.

It's one of many kick-out-the-jams moments on the self-titled debut album from White Mystery, siblings who shake mountains of red hair while playing the type of garage rock that makes garages crumble.

It was meant to be.

Alex, 24, and Francis, 22, have been making music since they were preschoolers in their parents' North Side two-flat. "I had a toy piano and he had a toy drum when we were little, and we wrote our first song, 'Baby Blues,'" Alex White says with a laugh.

A couple of decades later they're rocking in White Mystery, which started out as a basement jam session between siblings raised on the same no-frills rock 'n' roll: a mix of the classic rock in their parents' collection and the punk that Alex unearthed at Laurie's Planet of Sound as she began playing in bands during her teens.

She toured the country and made two raw and dirty guitar-stoked albums with Miss Alex White and the Red Orchestra. When the band broke up in 2008, she didn't skip a beat because Francis was eager to step in, not-so-quietly waiting his turn to make some noise with big sister.

"My sister was the pioneer in the family, getting out into the world and meeting people, playing live, making connections, getting into the Sex Pistols and all these great punk bands while I still listening to Nine Inch Nails," Francis White says. "It was always a fantasy of mine to be in a band with her some day. We had always played together around the house, but I always hoped that after she got done with these awesome bands that she would pick me up and take me somewhere."

The collaboration took hold with "a fun, at-home project" documented on cassette a few years ago, he adds. "We didn't think of taking it any further until the wrapper. ...

"The eureka moment! I was eating some Airheads candy and saw the 'White Mystery' [flavor] on the wrapper," Alex White says. "OK, this is our destiny."

The family band already shared an affinity for loud, nasty, emotionally transparent rock.

"It's pretty telepathic," Francis White says. "My sister comes in with a riff or a guitar line, and it usually picks up pretty quickly from there. I know how to attack it. Even when we go on stage and try out a new song, it seems to go over brilliantly."

"It's off the cuff," Alex White says. "Words are important -- certain words just sound good in [the keys of] B and E -- but it's mostly about moving people and shaking their butts with syncopation and energy."

Part of the charm is visual; the siblings have always stood out because of their oversize red Afros.

"I used to get [mocked] all the time for it," Alex White says. "When I was a kid I was in the park and a woman came up to me and said, 'Can you sing the "Annie" song to me?' And I picked up a stick and waved it at her."

"I was a bully magnet in grade school, but once I got to Lane Tech I never had a problem," Francis White says. "I'm 6-2, so if I'm walking through Wrigleyville and some guy in a baseball cap yells, 'Carrot Top,' I usually get him to apologize."

Alex White says she didn't like her hair in high school because it caused so much unwanted attention, but now she and her brother let their freak flags fly.

"I'd bleach it blond, dye it purple, and finally I just shaved my head," Alex White says. "It grew back, and I embraced it. This is who I am. When Francis and I formed the band, we formed a no-haircut pact. They say the more hair you have of a certain color it's a reflection of what's inside you. I like to think that we have this fire around our heads, and it's this fire growing inside of us too."

"Yeah!" her brother affirms with a laugh. "We're rubies glistening in a sea of brown and blond."